Guilt society vs shame society

People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor

Have to go with guilt society. The shame society thing going on in Japan and China can get a bit ridiculous when the actions of one family member can literally bring down everyone else in the family. Have a deadbeat alcoholic father? Good luck getting a job in that town.

Easy one... I'll take the guilt society. The shame society seems profoundly unfair in how the actions of a single individual can bring down the entire family. In addition, I feel a shame society can and does result in higher levels of unhappiness and is more likely to result in extreme measures by the person causing the shame, i.e. higher rates of suicide. You have seen this play out in high suicide rates in Japan and Korea, where individuals turn to aggression against themselves when faced with failure (even simple business failure/bankruptcy) or shame. In some cases, suicide is even considered "morally responsible behavior," not in reference to assisted suicide for terminally ill, but as a legitimate response to shame as a form of taking responsibility.

In addition, the shame society in those cultures seems to have contributed to a poor approach to addressing mental illness, which is considered to bring shame. If you take a medication to help with mild depression, it is often viewed the same as something more acute/debilitating like schizophrenia.

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor

Interesting. Is individual guilt really just the society putting the burden of shame on the individual instead of the group? Example: I know my brother drinks. His religion forbids it, right? Now, his religion wants him to change his ways, but the burden is his privately. There will be no public shaming or reconciliation and glory if/when he abandons the "offensive" behavior. It's all on him - but if the guilt works, the religion wins - it wins his renewed loyalty and probably some kind of odd gratitude from him that it guilted him into "changing".

We don't have either. More so, people are not held accountable for their actions and what what is socially acceptable has changed, some for the better but mostly for the worse.

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. Time makes more converts than reason." - Thomas Paine Common Sense.

How Data and Social Pressure Can Reduce Home Energy Use

With the relationship between utilities and their customers changing in unprecedented ways, new companies are deploying vast amounts of data and social psychology techniques to try to persuade people to use less electricity in their homes.
by dave levitan

Visit the website of Opower and your eye will be drawn to a counter in the corner, its digits ticking ever higher. The counter represents energy that the company says its customers have saved after it provided them data on electricity usage and employed behavioral science to change their consumption patterns. As of this writing, the counter is climbing past 1.62 billion kilowatt-hours.

Virginia-based Opower is just one of a growing number of so-called electricity consumer engagement companies around the U.S. that have sprung up in recent years with the aim of helping customers reduce their electricity use, primarily by analyzing their current consumption and finding the easy fixes. These companies are mixing in data from the rapid deployment of smart meters with behavioral science to try and answer a key question: How can we get people to care? The central idea is that by showing people how much electricity they use, when they use it, and what their neighbors and peers use, consumers can be driven to change.